CBSE media course gains traction

A four-pronged set of objectives has driven CBSE to realise what it has set about in a comprehensive manner. As its website proclaims:

• Innovations in teaching- learning methodologies by devising students friendly and students centered paradigms.
• Reforms in examinations and evaluation practices.
• Skill learning by adding job-oriented and job-linked inputs.
• Regularly updating the pedagogical skills of the teachers and administrators by conducting in service training programmes, workshops etc.

Journalism and mass media as a career option has always had its fair share of supporters. Along with a spurt of institutes teaching such courses in recent times, mostly at graduate level, it was not surprising the Central Board of Secondary Education too decided to throw its hat into the ring, more than six years ago.

In an interview to The Hindustan Times over three years ago, the then Chairman, CBSE, Vineet Joshi had said: "We introduced the mass media subject in 2009 in 23 schools spread across Pune, Mumbai and Delhi as a pilot project. Now we will be extending it to all the 12,500 schools across the countries which are affiliated to CBSE.”

Apart from providing more career choices for the students, the CBSE head also said that "Media is a strong medium to influence large numbers of people. The subject will help us prepare students who can report more objectively." Looks like, over the past three years, students have taken a fancy to the course which had a broad based approach right from the start.

The National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT) has also designed and prepared the content of the courses and is in the process of publishing textbooks for Class 11 and 12. The Class 11 book titled Media Studies spread through five chapters dealt with topics like communication, understanding media, print media: an introduction to journalism, media development and society, and advertisement.

A CBSE official said that the scheme of studies for these new subjects is rigorous in nature and designed specially with the industry and employability avenues in mind. Welcome moves have also been made by the University Grants Commission when in a press communiqué in May 2014 they asked the universities to recognise these courses introduced by the CBSE two years earlier.

The letter to vice-chancellors of all universities in the country explained that the CBSE has introduced various academic subjects at the senior secondary level. It is imperative that these subjects find a reflection in the subjects already being offered at the graduate level in various educational institutes. "It is important that appropriate consideration may be accorded while admitting students to the undergraduate courses at the college/university level," UGC wrote.

Of course, much groundwork remains pending before the batches of media-oriented students make their mark professionally. What is important that the ‘chalk and talk’ routine which is the mainstay of thousands of schools in the country is being replaced by other workable methods. There are other inherent advantages of the system which the teachers are prompt to point out, adding to the overall comfort level of the average student.

As Sharmila Tadapalli, a teacher with Kendriya Vidyalaya said: Lesson reading is important which actually advances the thinking of a person. They read and write which improves the students’ writing skills and their hand writing too. All these are to be concentrated upon not just because they are the high-ranking process for the students but also for the outer world when they step after the college.” Indeed!

By:Heena Mishra & Priya Rathnam